Using Art & Craft Using Art & Craft in the in the

Classical Classical Civilisation Civilisation ClassroomClassroom

Sheena McCabeSheena McCabe

CAIT National ConferenceCAIT National Conference

1515thth October 2011 October 2011

Greek art – Vase painting

Breakdown for 40 minute lesson:

Equipment needed:

2 glass vase (only 1 needed if it’s a small group)

Newspapers

P.V.A glue

Black paint

Orange & black crayons/markers/colouring pencils

White paper

Paint brushes

Rulers

Scissors

Pencils

(If you have the resources and want to speed things up

– use black paper instead of newspaper & paint

– less tidying up and needs no drying time!)

Plan for vase painting lesson:

• Depending on class size, divide up into groups. Each with 10-12 students.

• Within each group assign tasks as follows:

- 2 students tear up newspaper into ‘patches’, each a bit smaller than the palm of the hand. They then glue these pieces onto the vase, ensuring they overlap so no glass shows through.

- 2 students measure out strips of paper to make the borders. They then come up with a simple border design, draw this onto their paper and colour it in (orange for the design & black for the background)

- The remaining students each draw a figure to feature on the vase and colour it in (orange for the design & black for the background). It’s a good idea to give students a maximum height and width for their figure so that they’ll all fit on.

• Now all parts can be stuck onto the vase with P.V.A.

• There’s no absolute need but if you have the time and want the vase to have that extra gloss, put one coat of P.V.A over the entire surface!

The Romans – Money

Breakdown for 40 minute lesson:

Equipment needed:

Cardboard boxes

Toilet paper

P.V.A glue

Bronze/silver/gold spray paint

Scissors

Decide what type of coins you want the class to produce

e.g. Students’ own portraits, Celebrity portraits, Aureus/ Caesar / Venus / Aeneas.

If opting for celebrities or figures from classical studies you could print out pictures of their head for students to work on top of.

Plan for Roman coins lesson:

• Each student should work on their own coin, weaker classes could work in pairs.

• Cut cardboard into a circle – with a compass or draw around a plate.

• If using a print out of a face, cut this out and stick onto cardboard. If not, students can draw the image onto cardboard.

• Using toilet paper dipped into P.V.A glue start to build up the image in relief (so that it appears raised off the surface – if it’s not in relief, the features won’t be clear when it’s sprayed). Ensure tissue is soaked in P.V.A and no dry bits are sticking out of the surface.

• Students can then use the same technique to add name and/or date (in Roman numerals of course!)

• When these have dried, bring all the coins outside and spray with bronze/silver/gold. Make sure this is done on top of a lot of newspapers!!

Greek Olympics – Olive wreath

Breakdown for 40 minute lesson:

Equipment needed:

Paper plates

Cardboard

Paper

Colouring pencils/crayons/oil pastels

Pritt stick

Scissors

Gold paper (if you want them to be extra special!)

Plan for olive wreath lesson:

• Each student should work on their own wreath.

• Cut inner circle out of paper plates and keep outer circle.

• Using colouring pencils etc. colour in paper in different browns and greens.

• Cut out a lot of different olive leaf shapes.

• Stick these onto paper plate so that all white is covered up.

• Ensure they are going in different directions to make it look more interesting!

• Maybe they could be used as prizes for a Greek Olympics event!

Greek Gods – Toilet roll model

Breakdown for 40 minute lesson:

Equipment needed:

Empty toilet rolls

Thin card / paper plates

Paper

Colouring pencils/crayons/oil pastels

Pritt stick

Scissors

Plan for toilet roll model lesson:

• Each student starts with an empty toilet roll.

• Assign each student with a God / Goddess and their symbols. Maybe show pictures of them so that they have something to work from.

• Using paper & card, students can draw and colour in the arms, feet, head, clothes etc.

• Stick these onto the empty toilet roll so that the toilet roll is completely covered up.

Examples of finished Greek god

Athena

Cyclops

Medusa

Other simple craft ideas include:

Paper bag puppets

Greek pottery made from paper plates

Trojan HorseMasks – using same technique as Roman

coin craft